LAHORE: The novel coronavirus continued to show alarm, as out of 10,290 Covid-19 tests conducted during the last 24 hours across the province, as many as 1,393 fresh virus cases and 26 more fatalities were reported taking the provincial tally of cases to 319,365 and death toll to 9,058.

Despite conducting relatively less number of corona tests, the positivity rate of the virus has reached 13.53 percent. With the recovery of 2,470 more virus patients, the number of recovered patients in the province has reached to 271,825. On the other hand, as many as 4,824 coronavirus recoveries were reported across the country during the last 24 hours taking the tally of total recoveries to 762,105.

In Lahore, despite lockdown, 501 fresh Covid-19 cases and five deaths were reported during the last 24 hours. The occupancy rate of ventilators in public sector hospitals in Lahore is about 70 percent while it is over 80 percent in Gujranwala.

Former Test cricketer Abdul Razzaq also contracted Covid-19 and quarantined himself in his home in Lahore. Razzaq said he was feeling unwell for the last few days.

“We have to believe that the coronavirus exists and I urge the people to wear masks as this can only be prevented by following SOPs,” he said.

Pursuant to the decision of the National Command Operation Center (NCOC), the vaccination centres across Punjab will remain closed for first two days of Eid-ul-Fitr and will open from 8am to 8pm after Ramazan.

Two more vaccination centres have been opened in Lahore at Model Town and Gulberg. Commissioner Lahore Captain Muhammad Usman (retd) visited the centres and reviewed the arrangements.

On the other hand, Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid has termed as baseless about reports on social media that Pakistan is running out of Coronavirus vaccines.

“Pakistan has an ample supply of vaccines; payments for 30 million vaccines have been made and the people over the age of 40 years will soon be given walk-in vaccination,” she said.

“The government is striving to vaccinate 15 to 20 per cent of the population by the end of June,” she added.

She said that Chinese coronavirus vaccine is one of the best vaccines in the world and hundreds of thousands of people have been vaccinated with Sinofarm and CanSino jabs without any complaint.

As per data, out of 26 deaths reported across Punjab during the last 24 hours, five deaths were reported from Lahore, six from Rawalpindi, three from Faisalabad and one each from Bahawalpur and Sargodha. As per break up of corona cases and deaths in major cities of the province, Lahore has so far reported 167,360 cases and 3,698 deaths, Rawalpindi 24,333 cases and 1,380 deaths, Faisalabad 19,735 cases and 946 deaths, Multan 15,798 cases and 649 deaths, Bahawalpur 7,169 cases and 219 deaths, Gujranwala 7,763 cases and 336 deaths, Gujrat 6,806 cases and 109 deaths, Rahim Yar Khan 5,131 cases and 190 deaths, Sargodha 7,563 cases and 229 deaths, Sahiwal 3,011 cases and 78 deaths and Sialkot reported 6,767 cases and 216 deaths.

Moreover, according to a study conducted at the University of Health Sciences (UHS), a more easily spread coronavirus variant first identified in England last year has now become the dominant strain in Lahore.

“The prevalence of variants of concern is increasing and it is now clear that the U.K. variant, known as B.1.1.7, has taken hold across the metropolis,” said the UHS Immunology department’s associate professor, Dr Shah Jehan who is the principal investigator of the research.

“Based on our most recent study, the B.1.1.7 variant is now the most common lineage circulating in Lahore,” she said, adding: “Out of total 100 samples, 89 had UK/Kent variant while only 2 had B.1.351 that is the South African strain of Covid-19 virus.”

Dr Shah Jahan said that the samples were collected from hospitals in Lahore and surrounding areas and the next-generation sequencing technique was then used to identify the types of virus. He added that he was working with his fellow researcher and Head of the Department of Immunology, Prof Nadeem Afzal, on whole-genome sequencing of 1,000 samples, after which they would be able to unfold a true picture of the types of viruses across Pakistan.

UHS Vice-Chancellor Prof Javed Akram said that research on virus was very timely and important, as the B.1.1.7 variant is between 32 and 104 percent deadlier.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021